On Halal and Kosher Butchery

By James Fallows

As mentioned yesterday, it's time to start working through reader responses on "bigot" issues, interesting new software, aviation innovations, beer, etc. Let's start with butchery.

Earlier this week a reader in London pointed out a Fleet Street headline on the "outrage" of (Muslim) halal rules for slaughtering animals, and suggested that the same papers would-- at least these days -- hesitate before expressing "outrage" about (Jewish) kosher slaughter practices, which are from the animal's perspective just the same thing.

Some readers have written in to say that in Europe (and New Zealand), kosher practices are coming under serious pressure too. They may not be get the tabloid front-page "outrage!" treatment of the recent halal flap in England, which in turn suggests that the UK press is less worried about seeming "anti-Muslim" than of seeming anti-Semitic. But all practices of this sort are subject to increasing criticism from animal-rights groups. For instance, reader Miguel Cardo of Madrid writes in to say:

While I totally agree with the main point of the article (typical braindead tabloid bigotry), there's something about halal, and also kosher, sacrifice rituals that pushes the limits of what kind of rules a society should allow because of religious reasons.

My brother is a veterinarian, and for a while worked in England as slaughterhouse inspector. Among his duties were making sure that hygiene regulation and animal welfare rules (i.e. avoiding unnecessary suffering) were respected; that is, as long as 'regular' slaughtering was performed.
When the slaughterhouse was used for religious killing, everything was relaxed: hygiene (biblical ritual instead of a proper disinfection of the butcher's tools), animal welfare (instead of stunning the cows before, badly sharpened knives were used on still conscious animals).

Coming from a country with very little religious diversity [Spain], I was amazed about what the British are ready to put up with for the sake of tolerance. Why are some minorities exempt of complying to some quite reasonable rules? Couldn't any group of people invent their own religion to avoid some civic duty or law?

You can guess I am not much of a believer in any deity... but I would really like that all citizens have the same rights and obligations.

The BBC story the reader quotes is from several years ago. More recent illustrations are here and, with some differences in tone and approach, herehere, here, etc. The Wikipedia site has more on current or pending regulation of kosher slaughter. And, to round things out, a Western reader who has lived for years in Asia writes to say:

Isn't it nice that so many people have enough protein in their diet that they can obsess over how the dead animal they are ingesting met its end?
Living in countries where there hasn't been enough to eat within recent memory puts the "humane killing" discussion in a different light.
I am certain my friend Miss Kim never questioned the source of her protein during Vietnam's last famine.